Too many feral cats in your community with no end in sight, they just keep multiplying? 

It's time for the 

Com Cat Caregiver solution 

that turns feral Toms and Moms into "Coms":

Community Cats

Traditional Feral Cat Eradication Program Considerations: from ASPCA

Trap-Neuter-Return-Monitor (TNRM)

"Ideally, the management of community cats should include trapping, scanning for the presence of a microchip, vaccination, sterilization, ear “tipping” (surgical removal of the tip of one ear as a visible sign that the cat has been sterilized), microchipping (when feasible), returning the cat to its original location, and caregiver(s) monitoring and caring for the colony, e.g., ensuring the cats receive adequate food, water and shelter.  Sterilization not only prevents birth, but also largely eliminates the objectionable spraying, vocalizing and fighting behaviors of cats in the colony.

TNRM programs should only return the cats if they have a caregiver, if the environment is conducive to successful outdoor living, and if there are no known threats by local residents to the cats. Recognition by animal control officers and shelter staff that an ear-tipped cat has already been sterilized allows for healthy cats to remain at or to be returned to their origin, rather than be admitted to an animal shelter.  TNRM programs should also assist with installation of exclusionary measures or deterrents to limit cats’ presence in dangerous, ecologically sensitive or contested areas.

TNRM programs are preferred over RTF programs because;

1)     services are provided to the cat without involving admission to an animal shelter, which increases stress for the cat and the potential for exposure to disease, and

2)     the involvement of a caregiver increases the likelihood of success of the community cat population, by supporting the wellbeing and safety of the cats, and provides a point of contact for the community when issues or complaints arise. 

Resource for Best Practice:  Guide to Trap-Neuter-Return (TNR) and Colony Care from Alley Cat Allies, the ASPCA and the Mayor’s Alliance for NYC’s Animals

Program Considerations:  Return-to-Field (RTF)

RTF programs involve community cats who have been admitted to an animal shelter, brought in by animal control personnel or by members of the public. The ASPCA estimates that 3.4 million cats enter animal shelters each year, an event that may result in an opportunity for their owner to find them or new family to adopt them, but which also puts cats at risk of extreme stress, illness and euthanasia.  Although a home for social cats and TNRM for unsocial community cats represent ideal results for those cats, it is important to consider the potential benefit of other programs like RTF given the millions of cats at risk in communities and in our nation’s shelters.

To be considered for an RTF program, the cat must be unowned, ineligible or unlikely to be successful in an adoption program (with very rare exceptions, social cats admitted to animal shelters should be routed into adoption programs that demonstrate a high placement rate rather than RTF programs), be able to be returned to the location where found, and appear to have been thriving in their previous environment without known threats to their safety.  It is crucial that the exact “found” address be available and recorded as part of the intake process, and every effort should be made to identify whether or not the cat is owned, including scanning for the presence of a microchip, looking for other forms of pet identification such as a collar or identification tag and placing “found” flyers within a few blocks of where the cat was found. If a cat qualifies for an RTF program, the services provided to the cat are similar to those of a TNRM program, e.g., vaccination, sterilization, ear “tipping” and microchipping.

Unlike TNRM programs, RTF programs rarely require that a caregiver be available to monitor and provide care for the cat following release. For this reason, the ASPCA does not consider RTF programs ideal for social cats and/or preferable to TNRM programs, and the use of RTF programs should never supersede robust and aggressive adoption programs for social cats (ASPCA's Position Statement on Responsibilities of Animal Shelters). However, where permitted by law, RTF programs can represent an acceptable option for unsocial cats who would otherwise be at great risk of euthanasia in a shelter environment."

Traditional solutions are failing

Do these Programs work? Or are feral cats still a growing problem with many communities across the nation? Well, we see a Solution in putting into service the thousands of kindly people who feed feral cats and are usually condemned for it. We don't condemn but recommend! Why would we do this if feral cats breeding colonies are being nurtured instead of starved out of existence? Because of this fact: keeping feral cats fed by humans stops most of their hunting wild animals and decimating bird species especially. Or so goes the urban legend. 

Actually, most all feral cats are being kept alive by human production of wasted food. They don't really hunt very much. They rely on humans leaving scraps for them. And there is this thing that human beings have been doing since time immemorial which is some human beings will share food with wild animals. This is how we domesticated dogs, and cats. That sharing instinct is manifested in all the feral cat feeders, most every community has them. 

Tapping into the sizable feral cat feeder population

Each colony of feral cats has its human feral cat feeders. Often one feral cat colony will have several feral cat feeders who are unaware of others doing the same thing. So why not enlist these generous folks who seem to be in every community in the battle to decrease the feral cat populations? Instead of banning feral cat feeding, let's encourage it with this major stipulation: 

The Com Cat Caregiver Commitment

Every community cat caregiver should turn a least one feral cat into a "community cat", that is a former feral cat that's neutered and has been given all its preventative cat disease shots. Community cats are generally nicer then and back in the feral cat colony they decrease the colony size by eliminating new kittens. Because each feral cat colony usually does have multiple cat feeders, often unaware of each other's efforts, if each community cat caregiver takes one feral cat off the reproduction cycle, slowly but surely each feral cat population will be decreased. In monitoring one feral cat population of seven cats over a year two have been made into "Com Cats", community cats, one disappeared, presumably died, and one new feral cat added. That's with one community cat caregiver. There are at least three of us for this one colony so we can eventually have all the feral cats neutered and disease free.

Community cat caregivers can monitor each community's feral cat population. If each community cat caregiver takes just one feral cat out of the feral cat production population per year and coordinates their efforts with other community cat caregivers each community feral cat population will begin to decrease in population size, because there are that many people who are feeding feral cats surreptitiously now or who would feed them if it were legal and encouraged. More community cat caregivers = less feral cats. Let's do this!